Everyone has a story. We came here to Planet Earth to have one. It’s what we’re supposed to do because we were created to be story-tellers. Our story about who we are is often, a mind-made and unhappy story – even though we did arrive here with our true identity tucked safely inside awaiting the moment of recovery.

In the meantime, we take on the stories about us, told by elders and authority figures, of who they think we are – and , well … we believe them! And that’s all it takes for us to assume that the role assigned us by a parent, a teacher, an older sibling, or grandparent is true. Why sometimes the very family system itself, without any particular person saying so, assigns us an artificial definition of who we are, that we, often blindly, take on as true!

And none of this is “bad” or “wrong.” After all we are here to try on various versions of ourself and then observe the results. Much like a scientist in his laboratory, our mind is constantly testing our hypotheses about who we are in this laboratory of life to determine what fits and what doesn’t. And it works amazingly, especially when we can consciously engage in the experiment … but it becomes VERY painful indeed when we mistake the story we’re playing for who we are, in fact.

Like any skilled performer, we take on a character and become it. We dress like that person, we act like them, we speak and respond to life as if we were them, and it seems bound to happen sooner or later, that we get completely enmeshed in the role, forgetting who we really are altogether! And if the truth be told. most of us don’t even know we have a choice! We simply take on a role assigned to us through messages we internalized as a child and feel and act that part into becoming our own personal version of Reality.

So who are we REALLY?

In Reality, there is a TRUE story about who we are. We call this self the Higher Self, or the Bigger Story. When we are in our true nature, we remember that we are NOT the unhappy story we’ve made up based on others judgments and opinions. When we are operating out of our True Selves, we KNOW we have a choice about what character and story we want to play out. We know we are free to choose what story we want to invest belief in, and we choose consciously, instead of unconsciously creating the painful version we’ve used before to define us.

We tell our children that they are created by Goodness … with a specific purpose in mind. Like the master pot-thrower, who throws every pot for a reason – each to perform a particular task, like making a cup for tea, a vase for flowers, or a bowl for rice, we too are individually and uniquely tailored for a specific task. And it’s always FOR us. This Goodness that creates us not only loves us, as its creation, but guides, provides for and protects us. Remembering this simple profound truth helps us distinguish who we think we are from who we are in Reality.

And we are also given freedom to CHOOSE what sort of character we want to experience in life. Done with consciousness, this is always a teaching opportunity that brings great wisdom and insight … and because we are consciously participating in it, we can remain fluid – returning to the memory of who we are anytime we get too caught up in the illusion of a story that is just that … a story.

We all have belief systems that are based on an often inherited lineage of beliefs that run in our family and comes down to us through our DNA. Uncovering these belief systems without needing to fix, eradicate, deny, or judge them even, allows us to bring them to consciousness. It is the act of shining the relentless light of consciousness on these belief systems that refines us. Below is a description of my own belief system, parts of which, I dare say, you may well recognize and relate to … but that’s just my guess … 😉

“I Am Bad”: A Sample Belief System

I found the “I am bad seed” within me today. It was buried beneath layers of smurky darkness, gathered into a single knot. I pinpointed it at its’ very start – there where it dominates over my heart.

It said: “I committed some unforgivable wrong, which completely taints and covers my creative song. I am punished, and deserve to be. With nowhere to belong and no place to hide, I stand rejected, and left behind. I am deserted, but nothing more do I deserve. Thoughts of forgiveness are absurd, because I am to blame. It is my fault and I will not receive anything good or right. I can never have what I want, because I blew it before I was even born. I don’t remember what I did, or why, that part remains unclear … but this I fear, and surely know; I have done the thing that cannot be forgiven, and deserve to die. It’s truly only Universal Compassion that allows me to abide.”

“I’m bad” along with all the thought bubbles that go with it, swirl round in my head, saying things like, “I”m ruined, and in deep despair … I’m forever damaged and unforgivable, but how can I say it’s unfair? It is after all my fault, There is no hope for me, and though I may deserve to die I am not ready! I will to LIVE! Woe on me for failing to accept my just punishment for the failure I am. But I cannot help it, nor put aside my desire to live, to love, to find respite – and to me, believing thusly, this line of thinking further proves my inferiority – more evidence I must hide. What will it take for me to swallow my pride – to confess my wrong, and pay the price?” It is too much for me … I cannot do it … I refuse. See how rebellious, how I insist on my wrong doing. I am bad to the bone.”

“So then … never mind how unlovable I am, how unforgiven; never mind how rejected, or undeserving, in spite of being forever unforgivable and deserving of suffering., I will do what I must to survive – even it if means I must be as bad as ‘they’ say (who they are I cannot name, only a lasting impression that I stand condemned …), so I will rudely push them away – I am hell-bent to keep the world at bay. They don’t want to be with me anyway. I’ll give them one chance to love me anyway … to debunk my thesis … I will put them to the test. Will they split or will they last? Their reaction will tell me all that I need to know”; but in the end it only reinforces everything I have come to believe … about the bad, sinful me.”

The only thing it really shows is how I set you up to help me to verify the lie I unwittingly believe. It’s an unhappy lie I committed my life to believing a long time back, before I knew the truth, before I had the facts. It’s the way I have perhaps always believed. I’ve never challenged it, I’ve never asked “why?” It’s been my number one priority – my single pointed, mind-made Reality, and that which I have firmly believed … a pack of lies from which I have never strayed.

What I describe here is a belief system, and nothing more. Though it rules our whole life by way of the mind – it’s not a bad thing, it’s not a crime. Every single person has one … and that’s by design. These belief systems are what we’ve come to Planet Earth to live out. We play them out in form, and then blame others, even to all of mankind, for the storm we create and live amidst. We persist in believing that it’s happening outside of us, when, in Reality, it’s clear to all who can see, that it’s a web of lies we’ve committed to believing into physicality. We remain committed to the crazy past, and replay it yet again, as if we don’t understand …. as if we are victims who played no part … when we both know, that it was what we expected and believed right from the vert start.

This production to which we are so deeply rooted consists of an unconsciously chosen cast, each hand-picked to play their part. We hand them their role; we ask them to memorize every line, and to say it right on cue, every time. And because they love us, they do … even though the lines we give them often cut to our very core and prompt us to turn away. We justify our innocence and turn on them instead, and blame them for the roles we unwittingly asked them to play. After all, they were simply playing their part. Why now then do we accuse them of having no heart?

Whatever your “Bad Seed” drama is about, from the evidence you gather you will prove beyond a doubt, that you are as wrong, as lacking, as unlovable as you fear. Once again your evidence will point the finger to say, “It’s because you are wrong, less than, or just plain bad beyond repair; you therefore do not deserve to be loved …” What will you decide to do then? Will you drive people away, and then blame them for leaving, thinking this is the only way to be safe, without having to compromise your investment in the the lie you committed to so long ago – the lie from which you have refused to stray, no matter how many others you have betrayed, no matter how bad it hurts to go on believing,

It’s as if we marry and remain forever loyal to an exceedingly unhappy way of seeing ourselves, and I think we must do so until such a time when we aim, from a happier place, to tap into an inner space from where sings a happier tune. Although perhaps barely audible, the healing tune hums unabated with a quiet certainty within the heart and mind, beneath the ruthless, much louder chatter … But we must listen … shhhh…. listen NOW for that deeper, more true, inner song … let it replace the other – let the lies be the wrong you surrender to a greater cause …. Let the seed of light that flickers within burst through the dark rich soil and reach for daylight; it’s a new song about a new beginning! Tend this new song well … feed it with care … water it with gratitude and watch it send its shoots to the sky.

I like to think of challenging times as being like grueling workouts designed to strengthen the spiritual muscles. As much as these times try us, they are FOR us. Way beyond words, I see Life and all it brings as opportunities for refinement. Seen from that perspective, there is no such thing as seeing a problem in the face of encountering challenges along the way. Life may be difficult … challenging … or extremely painful … however, pain does NOT necessarily mean that something is wrong. Often pain indicates growth and expansion …

Self-inflicted suffering comes from holding on to some intensely painful beliefs that spiral quickly downward into misery making reactions.

Here a list of some common beliefs that holds us in Victim Consciousness:

“Things are not the way they should be” – this belief is universal and the root cause of most human suffering. Believing this thought causes us to fixate on problems instead of what we have that is working. Of course, what follows on the heels of this belief is the need to control, deny, or attack the thing ( or person) we think should be different.

“There is no support for me” – believing this causes us to turn our backs on the Universal Support that is always available and leaves us feeling bereft, alone, abandoned, and fearful for the future.

“They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with the horrible things they do.” This one is a belief that causes us to react with acts of vindication (which is simply revenge justified) instead of seeing the law of Reality that recognizes that injustices are performed by those who believe their own unhappy thinking about the way life should be. Their reactions are an unabashed attempt to manipulate things. (Oh, they are just like us!)

“These things shouldn’t have happened to me.” – believing this leads to the inability to realize that there is no such thing as coincidence … that there is not a single thing that has happened to you that has not been essential for your life purpose and growth.

Notice all the shoulds in the list above. I like to think of “Shouldville” as the hometown of the victim ego. Shoulds are a reaction that only causes resistance to Reality (a sure-fire way to guarantee misery). Peace never comes from the demand that things be different than the way they are. Reality does not recognize “should” – it simply and relentlessly reflects the belief being projected, and never the ideal.

I was tossing and turning during the wee hours of the night a while back. (I’ve found that the early AM hours are the time when the ego does its worst work.) This sort of sleeplessness has assailed me before. I awaken abruptly and lie there for hours completely overrun with thoughts like, “what if this happens or what if that doesn’t work?” -the kind of thoughts that don’t even occur during day time hours but feel overwhelming at night. My habit in the past has been to lie awake feeling completely at the mercy of such thoughts and pray for daylight so that I can escape them into my busy schedule.

But this time was different.

This time when the ego voice awoke me at 3 AM and started in on its predictable rant I recognized its voice and didn’t take it quite so seriously. It still held sway for awhile, going on about about how dire my life situation is, but this time I didn’t lose sight of who it was in me that was carrying on with such nay-saying. I decided to ask for help.

I sat up in bed, turned on my bedside lamp and reached for the bible which happened to be lying on a table near by. I sat with the bible on my lap a few minutes and asked to be guided with words that would help me deal with the negative fear-mongering ego that lives in my own head. I closed my eyes and opened the bible.

When I opened my eyes the first words I saw was the beginning of a psalm that said, “Praise the Lord.”I felt an immediate relief upon reading the words and thought, “OF COURSE that’s the answer to ego’s ranting!”

Praise generates gratitude; it uplifts the spirits and raises our vibrational frequency to a higher vibratory level that attracts love and abundance. Gratitude defeats ego completely because it is of a much higher frequency. Ego cannot thrive in the high vibrational frequency generated by praising Source.

With that awareness in mind, I started whispering an improvised song of thanksgiving for the over flowing abundance in my life. Peace and quiet joy descended. I did not go back to sleep. I did not need to. I was so filled with gratitude that I felt eager to start my day. And it turned into a wonderful day – as days generally are when I start out in an attitude of gratitude.

What is the lesson? Simply this; gratitude is the antidote for fear or any stressful feeling. Use it ceaselessly.

The next time anxiety producing thoughts threaten to take you down, remember that it is the ego that produces fear – always. and turn to thoughts of gratitude immediately. Find reasons to be grateful in everything you do and in everything that happens. Refuse to hang out with the dark thoughts of an angst producing ego and you will find yourself held in the hands of an abundant universe.

The mind rules the body. Through my work, I have come to see just how true those words are. What we believe determines not only our health, but the physical stance and posture we assume, and that physicality becomes the way we communicate to others about who we are and what we believe. Our body is a transmitter of the energy we create through the thoughts we believe.

Each of us has adopted a bevy of thoughts with a central, most often limiting, belief that rules; these are our core beliefs. Core beliefs generally originate in childhood. Often they come from a thought lineage that has been passed down to us from previous generations and that consists of both positive and negative beliefs. However, when I use the term, core belief, I am referring to the limiting or negative core beliefs since they are the ones that cause us trouble.

Core Beliefs act like a magnet by attracting into their orbit other complementary thoughts/beliefs, and creating a belief energy field that becomes our identity. This limited identity often establishes what we call victim consciousness. In other words, we adopt core beliefs that define and shape an often painfully limiting victim consciousness, an energetic pattern of consciousness, or identity, that we then become totally addicted to – even though it may be a sorely dysfunctional and painful one.

We ‘wear’ these patterns in our body. They are carried energetically in the body and are visible through our physical habits and posture; these patterns form what we call our victim posture or stance that, though we may attempt to compensate for it, or hide it, it nonetheless transmits a ‘victim vibe’ that attracts to us people and situations that vibrate at the same low frequency. In other words, through our victim posture we invariably attract to us the people and situations that verify for us what ever victim belief we have adopted and are carrying physically.

Our body reflects our beliefs, and because this is so, we can use the body as a doorway to identify our negative, limiting core beliefs, and to clear them. How? By identifying the places in the body where the victim pattern has us out of physical right alignment and using those places of contraction and chronic discomfort to identify the belief that we are carrying there. Through observer consciousness (the antidote for victim consciousness) we investigate the painful beliefs we are carrying in our body and begin to bring ourselves back into a healthier alignment. Years of chronic pain disappears as we begin to release the troubling thought patterns that have been holding our bodies in contorted, painful misalignment and return to an alignment that restores health on all levels, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually

Through years of researching these ideas in my experiential work with clients (and on myself) I have verified them and continue to discover better ways of moving us out of our victim patterns and into alignment with our Universal Source which, when we are in alignment with it, heals and restores our health and sanity.